Department of Biology

Department of Biology

Obesity and diabetes are not just problems of modern-day humans and their domesticated pets. Insects also are affected by these health conditions, and intestinal infections by protozoans are the cause, according to researchers at Penn State. The research suggests that intestinal infections may contribute to metabolic diseases in humans as well. Ruud Schilder, assistant professor of entomology and biology, has received a three-year grant from the National Science Foundation to expand upon these findings.

David Hughes understands the devastating effects a plant disease can have on crops and the people who rely on them for food and income. This understanding, and the mentoring he received early in his research career, germinated the seed of an idea that has borne fruit in the form of an online network designed to get practical knowledge about plants and plant diseases into the hands -- and mobile devices -- of farmers around the globe.

The small body size associated with the pygmy phenotype is probably a selective adaptation for rainforest hunter-gatherers, according to an international team of researchers, but all African pygmy phenotypes do not have the same genetic underpinning, suggesting a more recent adaptation than previously thought.

As a graduate student, Heather Hines was part of a successful effort to track the history of bumblebee evolution, painstakingly constructing from genetic and geographic information a comprehensive family tree. As a post doc, she worked with a large international consortium of evolutionary biologists doing similar work with Heliconius butterflies. Now an assistant professor of biology at Penn State, Hines is using both systems to unravel the fascinating genetics behind adaptive radiation and mimicry.

Claude dePamphilis, professor of biology, will present "Ancient Flowers: The Search for Earth's First Flowering Plants" at 12:30 p.m. on April 17 at Schlow Centre Region Library as the fourth of six Research Unplugged events this semester. Research Unplugged brings together Penn State researchers and the State College community for lively public discussions.

He may not be able to scale tall buildings or launch bolts of energy, but Todd LaJeunesse is a defender of wildlife with an above-average ability to decipher the complexities of nature. That's why cartoonist Adrian Pijoan chose the Penn State associate professor of biology to be the subject of his comic, titled "Reef." Published in the current issue of The Cartoon Picayune, the sixteen-page graphic treatment tells the story of LaJeunesse's research on coral reefs, and particularly of the relationships among coral animals and their symbiotic algae.

As biomedical researchers continue to make progress toward the realization of personalized genomic medicine, their focus is increasingly tuned to highly mutable regions of the human genome that contribute significantly to genetic variation and many inherited disorders.

A research discovery that helps point the way to potential therapies for memory-related disorders including Alzheimer's Disease has been made by a team of neuroscientists that includes Douglas Cavener, professor of biology at Penn State. A paper describing the research was published in the Aug. 12 issue of the journal Nature Neuroscience.

Gong Chen, professor of biology at Penn State, has been appointed as Holder of the Verne M. Willaman Chair in the Life Sciences. The appointment, effective on July 1, was made by the Office of the President of the University, based on the recommendation of the dean, in recognition of Chen's national and international reputation for excellence in research and teaching.

With sea ice at its lowest point in 1,500 years, how might ecological communities in the Arctic be affected by its continued accelerating melting over the next decades? Penn State Professor of Biology Eric Post and an international team of scientists tackle this question by examining relationships among algae, plankton, whales and terrestrial animals such as caribou, arctic foxes, and walrus; as well as the effects of human exploration of previously inaccessible parts of the region.

Rachel W. Chang of Haverford, Pa., will be honored as the student marshal for the Eberly College of Science during Penn State's spring commencement ceremonies on Saturday, May 4. Chang's faculty escort for the commencement exercises will be Aimin Liu, an associate professor of biology.

Yingwei Mao, an assistant professor of biology at Penn State, has been honored with a NARSAD (National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression) Young Investigator Grant. The award provides support for the most promising young scientists conducting neurobiological research.

Mao's research focuses on how particular genetic defects play a role in the onset of mental illnesses such as schizophrenia, depression, autism and bipolar disorder. Recently, Mao and his colleagues pinpointed the specific neurological effects of deficits within a gene that is disrupted in schizophrenia -- the DISC1 gene. Mao's research identified that a faulty DISC1 gene interrupts division of neural stem cells in the hippocampus -- a process crucial to healthy brain development and maintenance.

Penn State University Waller Professor of Plant Biology and past President of the American Society of Plant Biologists Sarah M. Assmann is the invited author of the inaugural Coulter Review article to be published in the January issue of the International Journal of Plant Sciences. A world leader in the field of plant-cell signal transduction, Assmann studies plant genetics and how plants receive and respond to stimuli from the environment.

In the review paper, Assmann describes how an increasing human population presents new challenges to 21st-century agriculture, especially since such stresses as climate change and limited arable land can disrupt the ability of many food crops to flourish and to provide sufficient calories and nutrients. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the Earth's population will reach 9 billion people by 2050. To meet the nutritional needs of this population, Assmann said, plant biologists must study how and why some plants are heartier and more capable than others of tolerating these stresses.